[MissBaby]

The reporting here and lack of familiarity is leaving a bit of a misconception in how SARS spreads through pipes.

The way the bathrooms are set up in Asia is the bathroom floor has a vent/drain. You can literally hose your bathroom clean and the water washing down the floor drain. The drain also acts as a vent for the tub/shower.

Anyone that has lived over there, anyone from the U.S. or other Western Country, knows to put a wet towel over the vent becuase sometimes you get an odor from it.

I'm certainly no expert in how SARS spreads, but these pipes are more akin to vents than they are to pipes. They are actually an air to air vent and all the aparments are linked by them.

Not sure how much difference this makes to anyone except that you can bet now that Westerners are not the only one sealing off that little floor drain/vent.

[per loin]

Cheap plumbing. If they have floor drains, they should have trap primers to insure the water seal against such rise of vapors.